The Pecan Park Eagle

At UH, Case Keenum IS Captain America.

It never hurts to recap the national records that Case Keenum has compiled as a quarterback for the Houston Cougars during this golden year for our university’s NCAA football program, even if things don’t stay perfect the rest of the way. Things are what they are. All of us live on that axis. We live in the moment and we move on as the moment passes to the next. This just happens to be a sweet moment for some of us who haven’t seen this particular version as often as some of you may have witnessed it. We are simply content now to breathe in every honeysuckle fragrance of this hour for as long as they float through the air and waft their way into our red-blooded Cougar nostrils.

So, here are the Keenum codes that fuel much of our joy. Case now holds five national records and is tied for a sixth that he may easily break this coming Friday in the game against Tulsa.

Case Keenum National Records

(1) Touchdown Passes: 145

(2) Passing Yards: 17,855

(3) Total Offense Yards: 18,771

(4) Total Touchdowns Passed & Run: 168

(5) Pass Completions: 1,427

(6) Most 300 Yard Passing Games (Tied): 36

We could write all day about the next area so I will spare you. Here are some of the other team passing records established by Case Keenum and a few of his famous passing Cougar predecessors.

Other Notable Houston Cougar Passing Records

(1) Most Passing Yards in a Quarter: Andre Ware vs. SMU, 10/21/89 (2nd Qtr.): 340

(2) Most Passing Yards in a Half: Andre Ware vs. SMU, 10/21/89 (1st Half): 517

(3) Most Passing Yards in a Game: David Klingler vs. Arizona State, 12/01/90: 716

(4) Most Passing Yards in a Season: Case Keenum, 2009: 5,671 (Keenum has 4,269 yards for 2011 thru the SMU Game)

Speaking of the upcoming UH@Tulsa game that kicks off at 11:00 AM this coming Friday, Nov. 25th on FSN, memories rush back of one that people on both sides of the Houston-Tulsa line will never forget.

Most Notable Cougar Team Scoring Day: 11/23/1968, Houston Cougars 100 – Tulsa Golden Hurricane 6.

Wade Phillips, 1968 Houston Cougars. Sometimes the best defense is a killer offense playing against a weak team that also has the flu.

The Cougars enjoyed their greatest scoring feast day in the Astrodome against Tulsa on Saturday night, November 23, 1968. UH won the game against the Golden Hurricane when the boys from Oklahoma hobbled into Houston huffing and puffing on a flu bug that take all the force out of their wind.

Some interesting celebrities played football in that game. Current Houston Texan Defensive Coach Wade Phillips and Country and Western singer Larry Gatlin played for the Cougars. The famous TV psychologist Dr. Phil McGraw played for Tulsa. And, boy! Did the visiting Tulsans ever need someone like the full-blown and grown “Dr. Phil” by the time this game was done!

It was awful. As the game rolled on, it became obvious early that this was the contest that made the case for allowable TKO victories in college football, but none of the rule makers were either listening or in any position to administer a dose of administrative euthanasia in the heat of battle.

Cougar Head Coach Bill Yeoman did his part to stop the bleeding with early substitutions in the second half, but the second and third string kids who entered the game for rare opportunities to shine didn’t go into action to fake a block, miss a tackle, or take a knee. Neither did the speedy special return guys. In fact, the Cougars scored their final TD with seconds remaining, setting up a successful PAT attempt for the third digit in a final score of 100-6 that was about as sporting a proposition as those street crowds in Paris that came to watch the guillotine in action during the French Revolution.

It would have been a great time to have the kicker simply kick the ball aside, but it didn’t happen. That’s not what competitive sports are all about. The time to say you can’t play is over once the game starts.

Anyway, the Tulsa annihilation happened 43 years ago now – and the Golden Hurricane has reared up to ruin several UH seasons in acts of revenge several times since then. We Cougar fans just hope that the Oklahoma Dust Bowl Canes don’t have another payback punch left in their collective bloodstream of memories.